The First Truly Free MBA Degree

Note: This post was originally published on August 22, 2016 and was updated on December 8, 2017. This post contains affiliate links.

Folks, hang onto your hats. The free MBA has finally arrived. Over the past several years we’ve seen a variety of business education options tailored toward price-sensitive students. Starting around 2012, MOOCs made it possible to get a top-tier business education for free (minus the degree of course).

Since then, there has been an explosion of MBA programs and other business credentials, all costing less than a quarter of a traditional MBA. In 2015, the University of Illinois launched its iMBA through Coursera, a MOOC-based MBA degree for $22,000 - still a big chunk of change but much more affordable than a typical top-25 MBA program. That same year, the University of the People premiered its “tuition-free” MBA, though students still need to pay about $2,000 in testing fees to get the credential. HEC Business School now also offers an online Master’s in Innovation and Entrepreneurship (also through Coursera) for 20,000 euro. And earlier this year, MOOC provider edX introduced a new suite of MicroMasters programs in business, all at around the $1000 mark.

Still, none of them has managed to do what Smartly has done. Smartly offers the only truly free MBA degree. Not a scholarship, not free-to-audit, but a fully free business education resulting in an MBA degree.

How the Smartly MBA Works

The Smartly MBA was created by a company called Pedago, which was founded by Tom Adams, Alexie Harper, and Ori Ratner, all of whom worked together at the language learning company Rosetta Stone. The Smartly MBA is built on Pedago’s interactive web and mobile app. “We had succeeded in bringing active learning principles to the language learning market, but were frustrated that most of the online learning industry was stuck in the lecture-and-broadcast mode of instruction. So we decided to start Pedago with the mission of delivering mobile-first, bite-sized lessons on an active learning platform that could support content in any subject-area,” says Harper, Chief Product Officer at Pedago.

The Smartly MBA is delivered online through a highly interactive technology application. No PowerPoint, no lectures. To complete each lesson, students must interact with the system constantly, every 8.7 seconds on average. The curriculum includes 600 lessons on 9 business subjects, a full MBA education.

The program is one hundred percent free for students. Smartly makes its money on the back end, by charging recruitment fees to the employers Smartly expects will eagerly snap up its graduates. Job placement is an integral part of Smartly’s offering.

Students are accepted by application only. So far, Smartly has had about 2,000 students go through its programs, including both currently enrolled students and alums.

Perhaps even more incredible than its price is that fact that students can finish the program in just nine months. That’s about half the time it takes to complete a traditional MBA.

“We were frustrated that most of the online learning industry was stuck in the lecture-and-broadcast mode of instruction.”

Is it really an MBA?

At present, the Smartly MBA is not accredited, meaning it hasn’t been reviewed and accepted by one of the official bodies that accredits business schools. However, Smartly is licensed to offer an MBA degree by the Office of the State Superintendent of Education in Washington, DC. Smartly decided to launch their offering into the marketplace without waiting to complete the lengthy accreditation process, which can take multiple years. Smartly does plan to seek accreditation in the future.

Who’s doing it?

The typical Smartly student has already achieved considerable academic and career success. That is certainly the case with Yash Jain, one of the members of the inaugural Smartly cohort. Jain currently works as a strategic business development consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton. His a long term goal is to become a venture capitalist in the area of health technology. Jain holds an undergraduate degree in Biomedical Engineering from The George Washington University and a graduate degree in Biotechnology and Entrepreneurship from the University of Pennsylvania. He describes his ideal professional role as “the bridge between the engineering and business worlds.”

While Jain did have some hesitation about joining an unknown and untested online MBA program, he says those fears evaporated once he started to meet the other members of his incoming class. “These aren’t your typical online MBA students,” he says. “These are Ivy Leaguers, entrepreneurs, investors, top-tier coders, consultants, and graphic designers.”

Smartly’s students interact through a social learning platform that accompanies the interactive software. This is where students in each cohort do collaborative group work and case studies online.

The catch? You probably won’t get in

Does a free MBA sound too good to be true? Well, for most people, it still is. Smartly advertises itself as “the world’s most selective MBA.” With an acceptance rate under 7% and an average GMAT score among accepted students topping 700, Smartly beats out programs like Harvard, Stanford and INSEAD when it comes to selectivity. So, while its technology program is scalable, Smartly serves the same kind of students that would typically be found in the most elite MBA programs. Members of Smartly’s first cohort have work histories that include Morgan Stanley, Accenture, KPMG, McKinsey and Company, and Google; and academic transcripts that include schools like Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, and Yale. This year, two of Smartly’s MBA students appeared on the 2018 Forbes 30 Under 30 List. To put that into perspective, Harvard Business School had 4 alumni on the same list.

Going forward, Smartly plans to keep its MBA highly selective but says that the company is still solving an important problem for many talented students. Not everyone who is able to get into a top MBA program can afford to go. With the Smartly MBA, price is not a barrier. Thanks to its scalable technology, Smartly can accept more students than many on-campus programs can. Of the top 10 business schools worldwide, Smartly is on pace to be the largest in enrollment in 2018. Additionally, as the company expands, it plans to develop other programs and degrees that will be open as well as free.

New programs to meet the needs of more students

In addition to its signature MBA program, Smartly has recently launched two more offerings, a Business Certificate program and an Executive MBA program. Like the MBA, the six-week Business Certificate program is free for students. It also includes access to Smartly’s virtual network of students and career network.

The 12-month Executive MBA program is geared towards mid-career professionals with additional courses in management, leadership, entrepreneurship and strategy. Admission is weighted more on career achievements, and the curriculum emphasizes peer activities with group projects and collaborative case studies. The EMBA also features optional on-site weekends in Washington, D.C. for networking and business-oriented activities. At $9,600 the EMBA isn’t free, but it is much more affordable than many other comparable programs.

Details

Smartly is currently accepting applications for the Free MBA and the Executive MBA. Information about the Business Certificate can be found here.

What do you think about the Smartly MBA? Is it a good option for people seeking an affordable business education? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Ryan

There are people that really need these skills and smartly only accepts Ivy leaguers, entrepreneurs and top tier investors. These types of people are on their way to success and really don’t need a “free MBA”! Why don’t they help those who can’t afford an MBA but really wants one and can prove that they can go through the rigor!

I’ve been doing the MBA course program and, while it’s certainly a brilliant idea and a sign that gamification truly works wonders, what is the point of opening it to everyone if you automatically exclude foreign students? And that only 7% thing is quite bothersome.

You can try MyLeanMBA.com, it is similar to Smartly in some ways (learning by short chunks) and is open to anyone (the entire course costs 299€).

Note: I work for this company.

Only4YouP

Well, I am IT guy with 20+ years on programming and I am taking the “free” version of MBA with SmartLy app. My experience with the app has been amazing. Great tool to learn in your time.

lili

You have been accepted?

Only4YouP

There are free courses, you don’t need to be accepeted, it is only to learn by yourself.

lili

Thanks. Did you finish them?

Duc de Richleau

I did them in a single afternoon. What a complete joke when it tells me at the end I have completed 14% of their MBA course. I can assure you that an MBA is considerably more involved than checking boxes on an app.

adam wright

I am doing the eMBA program and the rest of the program is considerably more involved than the introductory course work. They, so far, go into considerable depth with the subjects I have done so far (mainly accounting, economics and stats).

Duc de Richleau

That’s not the MBA course. Do no you haven’t been doing their ‘free’ version. Since you must be middle aged to have 20+ programming experience, it is unlikely you got accepted to something pitched at people in their 20’s who have recently completed a degree. Such is the utter scam of it.

Only4YouP

Is only to learn bu yourself not necessary to have “a degree”. If you need MBA degree that’s other thing.

Very interesting approach.. Its basically mixing the recruiting concept with a university. They are selective since that is how they make money by having high quality candidates for employers.. there are many other models that could be explored for sure..

“Why So Elitest?”
It’s easy to be upset about an “elitest” start-up MBA, but while I don’t know what Smartly’s ultimate intentions are, I do think it’s important to understand WHY they’re starting this way, and why ANYONE who is interested in a free, online MBA, even if they aren’t Ivy-educated, should support this and follow the progress made.

FIRSTLY : Technology and infrastructure are not cheap. It takes time and money to develop curriculum, and if you don’t want your average (read:pretty bad) online curriculum, someone somewhere needs to pay for it.
Take this from someone who has tutored math to way too many students (kids to adults) who were super fed up with their online classes.

SECONDLY : Who is going to pay for someone else’s free education?
College is expensive. Degrees are expensive. If you want to offer the quality education from POINT 1, COMPLETELY FREE, somebody has to pay for it. Smartly has done something very smart and put that burden NOT on the students, but on RECRUITERS. Businesses who want access to these “elite, top-tier” students (which is like the next level selection post Ivy-graduation), will pay for their information, and this is a GOOD thing. To attract those businesses, you have to do what Smartly is doing, which is drastically limiting their acceptance rate.
*Do note that Smartly has yet to release ANY number of stats about how many applicants they have received and how many they’ve accepted. They’ve only released a %, which can be calculated many ways.

THIRDLY : A good proof of concept will bring additional people to the market.
Sure, Smartly is starting with the elite. And maybe they’ll stay with the elite. But that doesn’t mean everyone else has to. This is an incredibly unique program with an incredibly unique teaching style — try some of their free lessons, because I guarantee you, the quality of the lessons is superb, and it is NOT boring like most lecture series. And if it proves EFFECTIVE, people will pick it up. More companies will start doing this.
With enough success, this could be a part of the transition into an entirely digital education system, that is 100% free to all people. That is entirely possible. But it’s not been proven to be economically viable yet, and that’s what needs to happen.

BOTTOM LINE IS : If you have ever wanted a free, online MBA, just keep an eye on Smartly. Tell people it’s a good idea, but that it should be opened to a broader audience. If there’s enough demand, economics says that the market should respond.

I just wanted to say something because my friends and I were just discussing the problem with the current cost of education (including the terrible incentives for for-profit universities). I am not related to Smartly (though I have tried their free Business Fundamentals lessons), and as an educator, I’m excited about the increasing opportunities that are being developed.

I was accepted into the Fall 2016 cohort of the Smartly MBA and completed 100% of the coursework to complete the “degree.”

If you’re interested in learning the business content of the lessons,
I believe smartly is a great vehicle and would whole-heartedly encourage you to engage with the modules, which cover great content and are actually fun at times.

I would not actually recommend applying and participating in a cohort as an accepted member for a few reasons: (1) the cohorts aren’t very well-run (communications are inconsistent, deadlines shift, etc.) (2) the “degree” itself is not accredited and (3) many of the benefits of a traditional MBA (access to the expertise of professors and collaboration with a network of your peers, for example) are simply not there or not very rich because of the format.

The program is certainly eliitist and I believe that’s in an effort to enhance its “degree” brand and pull talent into its budding career network, which I have yet to see offer any value. These elitist goals of the Smartly MBA may be achieved in time, but they aren’t really there now.

To summarize: I recommend engaging in the learning modules for learning’s sake, but not applying to or buying into the program itself, which is a series of hoops to jump through and at this point doesn’t really add significant value as an MBA.

Johannes Bambang Wirawan

How did you apply Smartly MBA Degree? Did you completed each Smartcase 100%?

Muhammad Mulani

I just wonder if any of institutions out there who provide TOTALLY FREE MBA ( not just a penny payment ) then after they have certificate of graduations they send donations to this institutions , oooo …how wonderful this world….

My Nguyen

I don’t know how to enroll it, pls help me?

Duc de Richleau

It’s a scam! UNACCREDITED means exactly that. There is no such thing as ‘unaccredited but…’ All they want is recent graduates whose skills they can sell to recruiters. It’s a complete joke that they spam themselves through social media, and create fake blog entries about themselves.

Click here for 50% off my online course, and get started on a DEBT-FREE business education!

Think a free #MBA is too good to be true? Smartly thinks otherwise. See my updated blog post on their groundbreaking program here:

Over the past several years we’ve seen a variety of business education options tailored toward price-sensitive students. Starting around 2012, MOOCs made it possible to get a top-tier business education for free (minus the degree of course). Since then, there has been an explosion of MBA programs ... ... See more